To counteract the damage hurricanes have caused to their canopies, trees appear to adjust key characteristics of their newly grown leaves, according to a year-long field study presented at the British Ecological Society’s annual conference today.
To counteract the damage hurricanes have caused to their canopies, trees appear to adjust key characteristics of their newly grown leaves, according to a year-long field study presented at the British Ecological Society’s annual conference today.
When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico last year, the worst natural disaster on record to affect the U.S. territory, it stripped numerous trees bare of their leaves and consequently disrupted their ability to absorb the light needed for growth and survival. Ecologists from Clemson University took the opportunity to study how hurricanes affect tropical dry forests in the Caribbean and whether trees were capable of compensating for the significant damage by increasing resource acquisition in newly produced leaves.
For the study, the researchers examined the leaves of the 13 most dominant tree species one, eight and twelve months after Hurricane Maria struck and compared them with leaves that were collected before the hurricane. They analysed whether the immediate changes observed in leaves were temporary or maintained over multiple seasons.
Read more at British Ecological Society
Image: Coccoloba diversifolia, a common native evergreen species included in this study, suffering from the effects of windthrow. (Credit: Tristan Allerton, Clemson University)
